The Complete Danny Phantom Analysis
by CatchingWind
Summary: Come one, come all, as we explore the inner depths of the riveting cartoon that is Danny Phantom! As we journey episode by episode, see a side of the show you've never seen! And be sure to review with YOUR analyses, headcanons, and more! Get ready to see Danny Phantom like you've never seen it before!


Hello everybody! CatchingWind here with something that I've been wanting to do for awhile: a complete analysis of the _Danny Phantom_ series. After all, we all love to see the development of the characters, we all love digging into the deeper side of the series, and we all know the disaster season three was, am I right? I'm hoping that this analysis provides a good insight to all of those and more.

Here's how I plan on doing this: I will be going episode by episode, doing something along the lines of "live-blogging." I like to call this "live-writing." In other words, I'll be watching the episode while I'm writing the episode's analysis, just to make sure everything is fresh in my mind and that I'm accurate with everything. I'm hoping this won't sound like I'm talking to myself (as if I need anything to prove I'm weirder than I appear), but it might come across like that. I'll also try and refrain from simply giving a summary of the episode - after all, if you're reading this, I assume you have watched some, if not all, of the episodes. If I feel like I'm getting too lengthy, I'll probably divide the episode analysis in half, ending where the commercial break would be.

Here is one announcement I feel I should make, however: I will try to remain as unbiased as possible in this entire analysis, but please forgive me if I do allow some of my personal opinions of the characters to slip in. I'll warn you right away that the two instances where this will probably happen is when I'm talking about Sam (and Danny) and when I'm talking about Danny and Valerie being together. I'll be the first person to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Sam at all, and I much prefer Danny and Valerie as a pairing. That being said, I will try to keep my personal opinions out of it so as not to rag on anyone else's (and please feel free to review with your own opinions!).

Alright! Now that I've wasted about half a page rambling on about this thing, let's get into the actual episode! First we begin with "Mystery Meat…"

One thing I admire about this pilot: right off the bat, we discover exactly who (some of) the main characters are. In each of the four character's first lines, we find out a key characteristics of each: Jack is obsessed with ghost hunting and teaching it to the next generation, Danny is timid and would rather stay away from it all, Sam wants to carve her own path in life, and Tucker… well, he's Tucker, right?

As much fun as it is to poke fun at Tucker, going back to the topic at hand, this opening scene of the series does a good job of establishing the majority of the main characters and their roles in the show. Obviously, those roles could change later on, but hey, this is only the first episode.

We also get a peek at one of the sub-plots of the show: Jack and Maddie's mission to prove themselves as ghost hunters. Jack even admits that they've never caught a ghost before and that some of their inventions are iffy at best, but they are quite impressive. A portal leading to another dimension? Come on, that's hard to beat. Obviously, they know something about what they're doing.

We even get to see a smidgen of hero-ing from Danny. I will say that's one issue I have with this scene - why keep the fight out of frame? I suppose it helps to drive the focus back to Jack and what he's saying, but the obvious sounds of battle distract from that. I feel as though the purpose was to build the tension about Danny - what's his secret? What does he look like? Why is he fighting those ghosts? - but it falls flat due to promos and the fact that two minutes later, the theme song plays and we get the whole story.

My conclusion is that the purpose of keeping Danny's fight out of frame is to show off another characteristic of Jack's: he's completely ignorant. After all, there's a battle raging behind him and he pays it no mind, rather presenting the Fenton Thermos to Sam and Tucker and _not even questioning where his son disappeared off to_.

I suppose in a way it demonstrates another characteristic of Danny's as well. We see that the moment his friends are put in danger, he pushes all thoughts of fear aside and leaps into action. Clearly, this is not a kid to mess around (or at least that's what we're seeing at the moment (; ).

Whew! I'll say, this first scene, though seemingly filler-y actually provides us with a wealth of information about the show and it's characters. In fact, I've never really noticed how much is shown to us in the first two or so minutes of the series until now. I could spend all day simply analyzing this first scene, but there's still about twenty minutes left of this episode, and I have to save my skills for later!

And now we come to the theme song. I won't spend too much time here - after all, I'll make the assumption that most people who read this know the words by heart. For those of you who don't, the gist of it is the backstory. Danny has wack-o scientist parents, lets curiosity get the best of him and shocks himself with one of their inventions and, surprise! Sudden superhero!

(Unfortunately, this theme song does poes a bit of an issue with what is shown in a later episode, but I'll get to that when we get there.)

Ah, and the title cards. I highly suggest reading the puns - they're the kind that are so horrible that they make you smile (hmm, reminds me of a certain ghost boy later on in the series… (: )

Now we get into the real meat and potatoes of the episode. We have our obligatory street panorama to reveal a flying saucer sitting on top of this house, looking like it's about to topple over. Adds to the wackiness of the family I suppose.

And then we meet Maddie and get a good look at her physical appearance before she pulls her hood up. We can instantly see that she will be different than Jack, especially in physique. But Maddie, using a blowtorch at the kitchen table? In front of your children? Not the brightest idea, if I might say.

In a way, this begins to express who she is as a character without her even speaking a word. She's so focused on her work, she takes it to family breakfast without a second thought. It she really this dedicated?

The same can be said for Jazz. She has yet to speak a line, and yet she's reading a book called _Surviving Adolescence Through Therapy_. We don't know how old she is quite yet, but this tells us she's the kind of girl who takes life very seriously - she is very focused on succeeding and is already "training" herself to become an adult.

And of course Danny is looking quite zoned out at the moment. What happened to our adorable hero?

Ooh, but then we get a little bit of a twist! His arm turns intangible on him and causes his spoon to fall back into his bowl. He instantly freaks, indicating that he may not be as in control as he seemed to exhibit in the first two minutes, and also indicating that he is absolutely _terrified_ of someone seeing this. Maybe he's even scared of it himself?

As this exposition scene progresses, we see Danny's fright get progressively worse and worse, especially when he's being tracked c by his parents. Good thing they're too naive to believe their son is the ghost they're looking for.

Surprisingly enough, he almost reveals his secret to his parents. Clearly, he is frightened and scared and he does not know what to do. He's only looking for help, so why not turn to the only two people who care for him _and_ can help him with his problem? I feel that although a major plot of the series would've crashed and burned if he had been able to proceed, we would've still seen some pretty interesting results. We already know that Jack and Maddie are very dedicated to their work in hunting ghosts, so this begins to pose one of the looming questions of the series: what would Jack and Maddie think of their son if he told them he was half of the thing he hated?

(We do get something of an answer quite later on in the series, however…)

We also get to discover more of Jazz's character. She's obviously very protective over her brother (or at least kids his age), and she even tells her parents (and the audience) straight out that biologically, she's sixteen, but "psychologically, [she's] an adult." This nicely sets up a running character arch for her which will get tied up some time later on in the series, but right now, we're focusing on this Jazz.

At this point, the sub-plot of the episode is established: Jack mistaking his daughter for a ghost and hunting her down. This is something a bit different than most shows - usually, the main plot is established before the sub-plot, but it doesn't take terribly long to get the main plot rolling after this.

When we next see Danny, he's with his friends at school, and two major arches in this series are set up. We see Danny's questioning of himself - he obviously does not want these powers, as cool as they are, and he cannot accept himself for who he is. This is pretty much Danny's big character arch for pretty much the entirety of the first season and even a little bit of the second season (I won't even talk about the third season quite yet…). We also get to see an arch that I mentioned before, though it's being discreetly filtered into the episode: should he keep his secret just that, a secret? Should he tell his parents? And if he did tell them, how would they react?

Those two arches give us major insight into Danny's (current) character. He is scared and virtually alone in this, and he wants his powers gone. I know I mentioned this above, but this plays a key role in shaping Danny and molding his character. Ironically enough, as much as he hates what he is right now, we see him walk _through_ a vending machine, shaking it up a little. This helps to show off a bit of his power, but serves as a reminder to the audience that this poor kid can't control what he's been given, nor can he do much to change his destiny.

Sam quickly reassures him that uniqueness is a good thing before proudly declaring that she is an "Ultra-Recylo Vegetarian," defined as eating nothing with a face on it at any point. To be honest, I'm not sure what purpose the long name serves (doesn't this technically mean she is vegan?), but that's beside the point. By now, we know that Sam is the kind of girl that doesn't let anybody else get her down. She is her own person and she's proud of it. However, this also shows that she is not hesitant to push her views on others, as demonstrated with her changing of the menu. This is one of her major character flaws, and it does come into play later on in the series. Whether you agree with her or not is up to you.

Strangely enough, we now know two of the main character's dietary habits. While it's a tad TMI, it does help to set up another subplot in this episode, along with Sam's changing of the menu. I suppose I could just say that this scene is absolutely crucial in setting up this episode.

(Quick question: does Tucker's meat-sniffing ability worry anyone else?)

Moving on with the episode, we meet the ever-popular "grass-on-a-bun," and we get to see poor Tucker upset at the notion of having to eat something that's not meat (how this kid hasn't had a heart attack or a blood clot yet is a miracle).

And then we find ourselves back at the FentonWorks to meet our villain for the episode! We don't know too much about her at this point, and her first line doesn't reveal _too_ much about who she is. It does indicate that she has a thing for the lunch menu, and the fact that she came out of the Ghost Portal probably means she's bad news, as nice as her demeanor is at first glance.

Oh, Jack and Maddie. Blissfully ignorant as always, I see. And trying to hunt down your daughter. Hey, at least Maddie has reservations about it. Still, we get to peek more into Jack's clumsiness and supposed incompetence. I say supposed, because any guy that can build a working interdimensional portal can't exactly be called "incompetent," hm?

But why would you hold the end _by your hair_ if the thing can _rip your hair off_, Jack?

Going back to Casper High (more puns!), we get to meet Mr. Lancer, but there's not much about him we learn in his first scene. Tucker freaks out a little more, smelling meat on the teacher (who should maybe be laying off the meat…!), but not too much to report at the moment.

And Sam, honey, if food is recyclable, I'm fairly certain it can't be _that_ great.

How coincidental is it that the human lunch lady leaves just as the ghost one arrives? Given we're talking about a Nickelodeon cartoon, and a Butch Hartman cartoon at that. Gotta get the plot somewhere, am I right? But clearly, she is _not _happy to see that the menu is now Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian, further getting into the main plot of this episode.

Danny still doesn't look like he's taken a bite of the "garbage" (I wouldn't either, buddy), but we see some sort of blue stuff come out of his mouth, and he clearly knows what it does, announcing to his friends that he's got a problem. He sounds quite scared of it, too.

I'd be more scared of the next character we meet, however. Dash Baxter, your stereotypical blonde, high school jock bent on bullying the protagonist to death. We can kind of already tell he's somewhat dim - after all, it is Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian week, and the kid daringly orders three mud pies. I'd have my reservations, but that's beside the point. We can also see that he's the kind of bully where if anything goes wrong, it's the loser's fault. What I find humorous is that even though he specifically knows it's Sam who changed the menu, he still blames Danny.

And we get our first instance of "I'm not his/her girl/boyfriend!" The first of many in the series.

But hey, this kid is smart enough to know that high school is gonna be the best time of his life. Pretty sad that he has this figured out, I mean who would want to keep going if they knew they were gonna go downhill after high school? But I still find it funny that, unlike many cartoons with this same trope, Dash acknowledges it and _accepts_ it.

Poor Danny, though, getting thrown around and he's not even in a ghost fight yet! Still, we see more of Danny's timidness show through in his willingness to comply with Dash's wishes. I mean the kid doesn't even hesitate to start eating the mud!

But we also get to see another side to Danny - the quick-thinking side of him. He knows he's gotta take care of the ghost haunting the cafeteria, and he does the only logical thing - garbage fight time! This goes to prove that Danny's smarter than he lets on and he knows what he's doing many times. And he's brave, too! Throwing mud at the bully who could probably rip him to pieces? That's bravery if I've ever seen it! Obviously Danny isn't someone to mess around with...

Alright, so our trio makes a quick getaway, blah blah blah, and they see the ghost. One of my favorite lines in this episode is in this scene ("Shouldn't she be haunting a bingo hall?"), but moving on, we quickly see that this ghost isn't all she appears to be. She's obviously very bipolar, though I still wonder how a ghost can be bipolar. Unfortunately, because this is the Lunch Lady's only time to shine, we don't get to see much character development in her, but that turns out to be okay, because it drives our focus back to another subplot that's established later on in this episode.

Though any ghost who cares so deeply about the _lunch menu_ must have some issues.

Then we get our first major battle in the episode. I won't delve into too many details, or this thing would get far too long, but I will say that we get to see Danny isn't too confident in himself and his powers. It's not severe, thankfully, but it's enough to show that this poor kid is scared about what happened to him (but what fourteen-year-old in their right mind wouldn't be?). We can also see that he doesn't have too much control over his powers and that he has to concentrate hard in some circumstances to even utilize them. This sets up one of Danny's character arches that doesn't last too terribly long, but is still important to his development as a character.

Plus, we get to hear another one of my favorite lines from this episode ("Well, if this whole superhero thing doesn't work out, I could have an exciting career as a busboy…")! Though I do envy Danny's bussing skills; I wish I could do that at my job! :)

But lunch? Being sacred? Come on, ghostie, I think that's going a bit far.

Sam gets mad at this retaliation against her wishes ("This is the thanks I get for thinking like an individual?"), but her line subtly indicates another one of her character flaws - her definition of an individual. I won't get into it this time around seeing as it comes into play later in the show (actually, even the next episode), but I will point out it could be a _writing_ flaw as well. Given this was back a decade ago, but the idea that the writers held that the radically different girl who goes against everything else any other girl is is the only acceptable girl is kind of harmful, especially since feminism is so prominent today.

Getting away from that, I do have one question: why does a ghost whose schtick is lunch have control over school supplies? But at least we get to solve the mystery of the disappearing meat (if you hadn't already by Mr. Lancer's glaring hints five minutes ago). And Tucker identifies the culprit before majestically getting hit in the face with a piece of paper, just to provide a bit of comic relief.

There's not much to talk about in the scene in the teacher's lounge, other than the fact that we get to see a recurring theme in Lancer - book titles as exclamations! One of the funnier gags in the show if I might say so…

(Easter egg-ish thing: does anyone else notice that Sam's tights and shirt circle turn green for the entirety of this scene?)

Okay, we get to see more of Danny's power failures right here, in the instance where he actually turns back into a human. This is something that doesn't trouble him too badly in the series, mostly in this episode I believe. Still, it's a bit funny to see this ghost kid superhero suddenly turn back into an adorkable teenager right in front of the big baddie he's supposed to be intimidating towards. And we get to hear Danny's first horrible pun! What a milestone! If you've never seen the show, beware, for there are many more on their way (in fact, I hold the opinion that the majority of the phandom is founded on Danny's horrible puns)!

The Lunch Lady ghost gets a hold of Sam and snatches her away (oh noes!), setting up the first half of the main plot of this episode, and if that's not enough, Lancer snatches the two boys away, Dash taunting them the entire way. This is where we begin to see some of the favoritism on Lancer's part that comes into play later on in the series.

And this, my friends, is where the episode would fade to commercial. After all, now there are so many cliffhangers, am I right? What's happening to Sam? What will happen to Danny and Tucker? Will Jack grow his hair back in the matter of a few hours (spoiler alert: he does)? It's all so riveting! :P

Because I spent too much time at the beginning fawning over how good it was, this is beginning to get on the north side of three thousand words. My apologies if your eyes are burning from staring at your computer screen. So I will end this one here and continue with the second half of the episode in the next chapter. I hope you guys stick around to see what else is on my mind!

And please, don't hesitate to review with your own opinions, analyses, or even just to add on to what I said! I love getting feedback!

-CatchingWind

P.S. - For those of you following "Hear My Cry," the newest chapter is in the works, it should be out very soon!


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